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A G.O.P. Split on Immigration Vexes a Senator

WASHINGTON, March 25 - The telephone lines in the unassuming Houston offices of Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, have been sizzling in recent weeks as anxious Republican voters call to find out precisely where their tough-minded senator stands on illegal immigration.

Mr. Cornyn is a former state attorney general and a fiscal conservative, a Texan who wears cowboy boots with his pinstripes and prides himself on his 100 percent approval rating from the American Conservative Union.

But as the Senate prepares to wrestle this week with the question of legalizing much of the illegal immigrant population, Mr. Cornyn, like many Republicans, finds himself squeezed by warring factions in his own party.

President Bush focused on the issue in his weekly radio speech on Saturday, a day after protests in three cities by immigrant rights advocates. As Mr. Bush spoke, people gathered at rallies across the country, including hundreds of thousands of immigrant rights advocates in Los Angeles and a few hundred demonstrators in New York. [Page 31.]

Mr. Cornyn has been criticized on conservative talk radio and labeled a "sellout" on some Web logs for promoting legislation that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain in the United States for five more years. The proposal would also create a temporary worker program that would allow those immigrants and hundreds of thousands of foreigners abroad to work here legally for up to six years.

At the same time, business groups have been pressing him to go further by supporting legislation that would put their illegal workers on the road to citizenship.

The legislative battle has pitted Republican against Republican, with conservatives deriding guest worker programs as an amnesty for lawbreakers and calling for a wall to be built along the border with Mexico, and with business leaders pushing for legalization of the illegal workforce and the admission of thousands of foreign workers.

With the Senate expected to start voting on legislation as early as Tuesday and Congressional staff members negotiating furiously over the fine print, some lawmakers are struggling to find middle ground.

In his radio talk, Mr. Bush acknowledged the difficulty that lawmakers faced. "This is an emotional debate," he said. "America does not have to choose between being a welcoming society and being a lawful society. We can be both at the same time."

But finding that balance has been enormously difficult. When asked how he felt on a recent day when he had shuttled from a telephone interview on Fox News Radio to a luncheon with business executives, Mr. Cornyn said, "In between."

"I have people come to see me who say, 'The wall is the answer,' " Mr. Cornyn said as he settled into a leather couch in his office in Houston. "I hear others say we ought to be sympathetic, we ought to just let them stay and call them legal and declare an amnesty. And I don't think either of those alternatives are possible or viable.

"Sometimes they end up yelling at me," he said of his conservative constituents. "But my job, and our job in Congress, is to see the whole picture and to come up with a realistic consensus."

Mr. Cornyn acknowledged, however, that it would be difficult to reach given the deep divide within his party. "It's the hardest thing," he said. "I honestly don't think we'll know the outcome until we get there."

The rift emerged in 2004 when Mr. Bush first urged Congress to create a program that would legalize illegal workers and allow for foreign workers to come here in the future. Both groups would be required to return home after a period of time.

The proposal was hailed by the United States Chamber of Commerce, typically a staunch Republican ally and a formidable political force. But it fueled a revolt among some conservatives in the party who demanded tighter border controls to stop the waves of illegal immigration that they view as a threat to American culture, jobs and security.

In December, the Republican-controlled House defied Mr. Bush's call for a temporary worker program. Instead, the House passed a tough border security bill that would, among other things, make it a federal crime to live in this country illegally, turning the millions of illegal immigrants here into felons, ineligible to win any legal status. (Currently, living in this country without authorization is a violation of civil immigration law, not criminal law.)

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Meanwhile, many business leaders have thrown their weight behind legislation sponsored by Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, that would grant permanent residency -- and ultimately citizenship -- to the 11 million illegal immigrants believed to be living in the United States. To qualify, immigrants would have to pay a fine and back taxes, learn English and work here for six more years.

Mr. Cornyn has tried to build a middle path: sponsoring legislation that would deal with illegal immigrants and the needs of businesses for foreign workers while trying to avoid being tarred with the amnesty label by requiring both groups to return home after a certain time. Under his plan, people could only apply for permanent residency from their home countries.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Mr. Cornyn is a member, is trying to cobble together elements of both pieces of legislation to produce a bill for the vote. Any legislation that passes the Senate will have to be reconciled with the House bill.

"Amnesty is off the table," Mr. Cornyn has said repeatedly.

But Republican hard-liners here and on the Judiciary Committee scoff at efforts to distinguish temporary worker plans from Mr. McCain's more liberal proposal. Many fear participants in such a program will simply vanish when it is time for them to go home.

"You say it's not amnesty, but it is," Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa said of temporary worker proposals. "If it looks, acts and smells like amnesty, then in my eyes, it is amnesty."

The issue is so politically explosive, particularly with Congressional elections looming, that some Republicans on the Judiciary Committee avoid discussing it. Senators Mike DeWine of Ohio and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, who have favored immigrant rights in the past, both declined interviews to discuss their positions publicly. Both are up for re-election.

And Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who supports legalizing illegal immigrants, warned fellow Republicans that they could expect little more than criticism for their labors.

"A lot of people, particularly on our side, don't want to have a debate about this," Mr. Graham said. "Even if you debate it, you're wrong. Even if you're open-minded about compromise, you're wrong."

Mr. Cornyn, however, has thrown himself into the fray with enthusiasm.

He recently entered into negotiations with Mr. Kennedy and others in an effort to build some consensus on a temporary worker program. He appears regularly on conservative talk radio and meets with competing constituencies like conservative leaders, business executives and Hispanic lawyers. Members of his staff have also been in regular contact with the White House.

"Coming from a red state, one that has a large Hispanic population and one that's a border state, makes it easier to bridge those divisions among Republicans and find common ground with some Democrats," said Mr. Cornyn, who has close ties to Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's adviser.

His efforts were welcomed at a luncheon at the InterContinental Hotel in Houston, where business leaders gave him a standing ovation. But even some of those executives said they were optimistic that his position might shift a bit.

That was not the view of a group of about 25 conservative voters protesting recently outside of Mr. Cornyn's office.

Leslie Wetzel, who organized the protest, dismissed Mr. Cornyn's balancing act as more "mixed messages." "He professes to be a conservative, but like so many other Republicans he's not a true conservative," Mrs. Wetzel said. "They say, 'Oh, it's not amnesty; it's guest worker.' Well, I don't care what kind of spin you put on it. It's rewarding people for breaking the law."

With conservatives turning up the heat, Mr. Cornyn issued a flurry of press releases, emphasizing again that he opposed amnesty. Some Congressional staff members said he had rejected a compromise with Mr. Kennedy and Mr. McCain.

But business leaders said they still hoped Mr. Cornyn would strive for some consensus. "There's a lot of pressure on him," said Laura Reiff, a co-chairwoman of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, which represents hotels, restaurants, construction companies and other service industries. "He's put in a position now of really having to soul search and figure out where he's going to be."